East-leading Blast beats league-best Milwaukee, 17-13

Pictures of the Blast during the 2014-15 season in the Major Arena Soccer League.

Todd Karpovich, Special to The Baltimore Sun

Even though the Blast already clinched the Eastern Division regular season title, there was much at stake in Saturday night's game against Milwaukee, most notably an outside shot at home field advantage throughout the postseason and added confidence against a team that might be their biggest roadblock to winning the MISL championship.

The Blast responded, as Machel Millwood got his second hat trick of the season, paving the way for a 17-13 victory before announced 9,644 at 1st Mariner Arena. With three games remaining in its regular season, the Blast (15-6) still has two more losses than the Wave (16-4), which leads the Central Division with four games to play. The Blast won two of the three games against Milwaukee this season.

"Tonight we had to bring it to show Milwaukee we can beat them," Millwood said. "We have so many guys that can step up offensively on any given night. All we need is for that one guy to put his foot forward. It could be a defender, it could be a midfielder or a forward. Tonight they were backing up and they were going to try and attack me when I had the ball offensively. I was going to put as much pressure on them defensively."

After the teams traded early goals, the game settled down and was tied, 4-4, at halftime. The defensive showdown continued through most of the third quarter, until the Blast began to pull away with three unanswered goals.

Millwood picked up a loose ball in his own territory, ran the length of the floor and slotted the ball inside the far post, giving the Blast a 6-4 lead with 5:19 remaining in the period. Almost four minutes later, Millwood completed the hat trick. Max Ferdinand's goal with 26 seconds remaining gave the Blast a 10-4 lead heading into the final quarter.

The Blast continued to pound Milwaukee goalie Marcel Feenstra in the fourth quarter, and J.T. Noone scored the Blast's sixth goal of the night with 9:48 left in the game. The Blast held the Wave scoreless for just over 40 minutes before Jonathan Greenfield scored a 3-point goal, cutting the lead to 12-7 with eight minutes remaining.

"That's Blast defense right there," coach Danny Kelly said. "That's how we do things here, defending with five guys with a purpose and being smart and disciplined. I thought it was just a great team effort tonight."

Ptah Myers answered Greenfield's goal two minutes later, increasing the lead to 14-7. The Wave pulled Feenstra out of net for an extra attacker with four minutes left, and Giuliano Oliviero responded with two goals in a span of 22 seconds to make it 14-11.

That was as close as the Wave got, as Shaun David scored an empty net goal with 29.2 seconds left. Hewerton Moreira added a late goal for the Wave.